' Mr A. H Co'r/roy, who is contesting Srncquario Porlornl sent, is n mnn of many parts. Ho is brothe'r-in-lnw to Mr George -Doyle, of Ccrni'iijrton (with whom he is in partnership) and to Mr Griffith, or Cudnl ((-on of Sir Samuel Griffith,'Chief Justice of the Ooitfmonwenlt.il.)" lu his youth Mr Convoy took to aiirvo'yin'jr, and became an expert ;in his spare'evening hours ho Vnacl for the ftnr, !n'iul ultimately passed, practising at his profession for a number of years, toati while, being an omnivorous reader ho mailo himself acquainted with quite a large number of obstrnco subjects—in fact, ho is one. of the best toad-mon o'tie can bump up against diiring'the "co'tirSe of a day's walk. Ho knows n lot about sheep, and is engaged in'dairying1 on a largo scale at Camden, and is preparing to take up the industry iti a big way on. North Bangnrqo where ho at pvosoufc ■resides. He is having quite a modern, residence erected at "Kangaroo, and expects to bo in occil'patio'u in a eoilple o...

BUSINESS FALSEHOODS. In business life in this country honesty, I more than ever before^ is the best policy. There arc fewer lies told, I really be lieve, in the commercial world than in the social world, which is founded on untruth Some degree of untruthfulness there is, no doubt, in the trading community. But are men perfect In any walk of life? And is it good that one class of men should throw stones at another?— "Magazine o£ Commerce."

: ; Master "A. McKen'w'e, who in employ ed a): tlie local post'offiae, met vitb arr acanlnnt while rising round on his' "bicycle Inst Friday. He was not seriously hurt-, but."was incapacitated for n few/days. ■ ; Mr; ,T Bovd, of the VictorifrHotel;-. intends to try and collect. a publican's; pm-se for the :uext. races to be held at Canowiudrn. ; ; Ainovomenfc is on footat, Eugowra. 1o establish a 'cot,tape hospital. Mr.. "Waddell has promised to try and- ob-t vnin a errant of land and rpnder other apsistineo. It - looks asithonch Eu ! gowwis going: to take: the 'lead of (.'anowindra in this as well as in manyi rtlieiv respects. • We .wish them every ; success with the movement.. . v. ;j _ • Mr.lVI J Thompson, of the 'Oowra road, had a narrow escape from do>nth •tftVrittg the heavv pfoim last Fri-. day. !He wns driving Iris team to: 'Co vA'a wlren ho was overtaken liy the: storYn, find while holding the horses^ •ho 'felt the lightning singe the baclc of liitt tieelr-. The effect, ...

.Just What Yog Rre Looking For [ THE SEXAPHOWE. This Invaluable Lit tip Instr&amp;teorit Never Ma&amp;ea a Miitake. IT CAN TELli The Sox of an TQgg in a fan- seponas. If you don't believe this jusj. try it and see for Yourself. Anyone lean "work it. It will last a lifetime. PRiCE I0/B Each J T3atisfaotion guaranteed or money refunded-! A. H. Thompson, 20 Parlcl-Stfee't, Sydney, j Solo Agent for the Commonwealth.

TRANSFORMED BLUE STOCK INGS. It has come to pass that the prettiest, most fascinating, and most companion able girl to bo found to-day is the col lege girl, who looks lao curiously inno cent of the load of learning packed care fully away in lier dainty head. For she has learned that a charming exterior of face and attire'will ilo more to cover I the enormities of her unnatural crav ing for knowledge than any of those would-be attempts at masculinity which did her cause such woeful'iuischief in the past. -"Eu'glisliiiian,'' Calcutta,.

THE PEAT CENTRE. The world's peat centre is not in Ire land—which, however, has more than 3000 square miles o£ bog—but in the north of Germany amd the adjacent parts of Denmark and Holland. A square mile of bog: ten fet deep is estimated to have a heating power equal to more than 300,000 tons of coal. Single bogs in Friesland are found to cover 1500 square miles, and Germany has more fuel in peat than in coal.

CRAZE FOB ACQUAINTANCES. If there Is one thing- strikingly charac teristic o£ this age, It is the number of people we know and the few friends we possess. The time that used to be con secrated to what Mr Henry James would call the Altar of Friendship la now squandered ou a hundred indifferent ac quaintances. Young ladles whom «'&amp;lt;■ hardly know invite lis to their weddings and expect a showy present to plac among the trophies of their marriage day.— "The World."

Withdrawn From Sale. Mr Can Marshall, auctioneer,announc- , es that the property kumvn as ' Go£Ts Oak ' has been withdrawn from sale. The | machinery, etc., however, will be offered J on the clay advertised, J

APPALLING TBffiCEDY. I THE ARBROATH jJSMA.® A. I twentyJdne persons killed. j SOME*1 TERRIBLE. SCENES. English newspapers* received by •the mail contain full, accounts of the terrible railway disaster at Elliott .Junction, near Arbroath, in Scotland, 0n tho 2Sth Pecem.be? last, the particulars of which have been Contained in cable messages publish ed at the time. Twenty-one per sons were killed, and many oth.;rs injurod. Amongst those killed was Mr Alexander Black, M.P. for Banff shire. One journal in its account of the disaster on the following day said:— The conditions under which the dis aster occurred ■ arc almost /unjjiB ccdcnlcd. Since Thursday afternoon a large section of the North British line has boon snowed up, and many trains lie almost hidden in snow drifts. Dundee, a busy -.railway centre,' is cut off from every quarter except by the East Coast line. To cope with the extraordinary condition expresses with snow •iloughs were senL out tc- dig up the .ost trains, but faile...

THE "OLD-FASHIONED CHRIST MAS" FALLACY. The famous frosts of history have (the "County Gentleman" points out) been re produced within our own recent memory in the great frost of 1S95; and when we look through the weather chronicle kept by Gilbert White "when George the Third was Kinfr" we ?eo that mild open De comber and January weather was no less common In those days than it is fioiv. In all probability the English climate lias not definitely ond permanently altered— periodical variations and so-called cycles thoro must always be—for at I fast five *>r six hundred years, since the gradual clearing of the once vast forests lessened the amount of the annual rainfall and fho cold which excess of rainfall brings. "Is hl.f family well connected?" "N'o dlBConncuUil. Four divorces In It so far."

ANTI-SUICIDE BUREAU. '''GENERAL" BOOTH'S NEW SCHEME A GREAT SUCCESS CLAIMED. ! Jxindon newspapers up to the 5th ult. j devote a good deal of apace to descrtb | ing- the working of "General" Booth's Anti-Suicide Bureau. It is asserted that, 1 on Khe first three days, no fewer thiin . 82 lives were saved by means of the bureau. 1 THE SCHEME. The object Is to provide sound busi nesslike advice for those who are driven to despair and thoughts of suicide by difficulties of any kind. In most casej suicide would tie averted by such advice, and difficulties whicn might appear iu superable would be quickly over-vimc. j This advice will be given daily, free of charge, to men and women of all : classes by "Colonel" Isaac Unsworth and "Colonel" Mrs Barker, of the Sal vation Army, at 101 Queen Victoria street, E.C. The officers may be con | suited dally between 10 a.m. and 5.30 j p.m., or letters may be addressed to ; them at the office. i Relatives and friends may apply f°r advice concerning th...

RAILWAY DISASTER IN AMERICA. TRAIN IN FLAMES. TEN KILLED, ,25 INJURED. The New York correspondent of the Xiondon "Daily Telegraph " wrote on 7th December:— Details arrived this afternoon of a railway catastr&amp;lt;T>:e on the Union Pacific Road, involving ten deaths, twenty-five passengers being injured. While"crowded j with passengers, and running at full speed, the overland limited express col-I lided at 2 o'clock this morning with a| fast-travelling goods train near Omaha, Nebraska. All the killed were ofliclals ot the train, and all the injured passen gers.. , • • , It was the duty of the goods train, which was eastward bound, to lay in a siding until the express travelling west ward had passed a certain section of the road. But the orders were apparently misunderstood, .with the result that just as the express emerged from a cut the goods train loomed up, rounding a curve not more than one hundred feet distant. The two locomotives met with a terrific crash, just as the ...

Federal Correspondence. Mr T Brown, M.H.lt., furnishes the following'copy of Departmental cor r(;8|ioiidonce : — CANOttTNDRA 1'uST OFFICE BSXARGEMEXT —Sir,—With reference to the corn inuiiiciition, dated the 13th January, from tht) secretary to the tUnnowindra Progress Committee, received through you, urging that the Post Office premises at Oanuwindra be enlarged, to uinpt the increased requirementa of the public, I have the honor to inform you tliut the question of providing increased nccommodution at the Poat Office mentioned is receiving attention the matter having been referred to the Department of Home Affairs on the 14th instant I have the houor to be, etc , E. J. Young, Deputy Postmaster General, Sydney.

GYPSIES' CAVE. THE HIDDEN CONTENTS. I According to the Lond n "Daily News" of Sth December, the Chatham police have made a big ha.ul of what is twlies-ect to bo stolen property in a house on Sticlcetts Hill, Chatham, occupied " by a gypsy family named Lee. In a raid on the house the previous day the police arrested the inmates and then made a search o£ the premises. It was discovered that the end of the washhouse had been removed and a wire screen substituted. This covered the en trance to a large cave exca vated into the Great Dines. Here wcrci found live rab bits in boxes, and the heads, feet, and feathers of numerous fowls believed to have been stolen from the residence of General Sir Robert Hart. . ' Deeply buried in the ground of the cave was a large quantity of supposed stolen property packed up in a tin trunk, baskets and sacks. Mrs Lcc, her two sons,and. men named Caulthrup and Harris were charged to-, day. with being concerned in nine differ ent robberies In the town, and w...

A Famous Fixture. Anthony Hordern and Sons intiraatp that tlmir Anuual Summer Stile will this year run i'ur:three weeks, starting ut) January 31st, and-ending on Satur day, February 19th. The news is welcniiio inasmuch as the big Brick tiold liill firm of Universal providers 'announce tlmt gtmuino reductions are made in each of the fifty departments that, constitute the Nuw Palace Em porium. The firm's reputation fur frtir trading and. honest dealiug stands behind th'j statement in the sale cata logue that tens of thousands of separate lines, making over half a million big bargains, have been substantially re duced in price. This sale list, copies of which will bo posted free on appli cation. sets out iu its 200 pagos a selection of the world's choicest com modities, and shows at a glance the regular price and the sale price of the various articles reduced.

RUSSIA'S CONDITION, GcSfPL.ET.EIiY GUT OFF. . A, writer in the "Globe" wrote an Sth December:—Russia has practically been cut offfrom the civilised-world this w.:ek by the strike ol* her telegraphic and postal employes. Stories of more horrors and more Jewish massacres are to hand from refugees, but no one outside Russia really knows what is happening. That the position is one of the 'utmost gravity , is unquestioned, and Europe awaits the issue with anxious expectancy. The working classes have given proof of their power of self-assertion, and largo num bers of both soldiers and sailors are in sympathy with the revolutionary move ment. Whether the Tsar is in actual jeopardy and whether Count AVitte is making any headway with his Constitu tional arrangements, it is impossible to say. Confidence in the immediate, or even early, restoration of order is shown to be non-existent by the financial panic in St. Petersburg and the fall of Russian securities on every European Stock Ex change....